BOOKMARKS 2024

Bookmarks 2024 took place at ECA on Wednesday 27th March from 1.00pm to 7.00pm at the ECA Sculpture Court.

A view from above of the bookfair taking place in the Sculpture Court
Bookmarks 2024 in action!

This annual event is a fantastic opportunity to meet artists’ books and zines makers, buy and swap stuff, and attend workshops!

Check out the new ECA website for more info.

A graphic for Bookmarks 2024
Illustration by Rebecca Tate, Year 3 Illustration, School of Design, at ECA

On a Clear Day: Bookworks and Poem-objects responding to Agnes Martin

11 January 2024:

 

ECA Library is delighted to host a new display featuring works by Julie Johnstone of Essence Press, and Alan Shipway, painter. Julie has long been drawn to the painter Agnes Martin (1912-2004). For this project she decided to address her interest in Agnes Martin directly, in order to see the body of work that might result when Martin’s life and work ‘met’ her own practice. She was interested in asking what it was that draws us to a particular painter or work of art – that affinity or resonance one feels – and how one might be inspired by that. Also on display are two watercolours by Alan Shipway who is also an admirer of Agnes Martin.

The show is open now until the end of February 2024.

Please do come along to ECA Library, level 1 of Evolution House, West Port, to take a look at our 3 display cabinets and the wonderful works inside.

NB: Evolution House is open to the public Monday – Friday, 9.00am – 4.45pm only. Sometimes our reception needs to close over lunchtime, at short notice, so please either phone ahead to check the building is open or arrive between 9am and 12, or 2pm and 4pm. You can reach ECA Library on 0131 651 5700. Thank you!

For more information go to the Essence Press website

At Home in the World – a sumptuous donation to ECA Library

We have recently received a most beautiful book as a donation from Professor Elizabeth Cowling, “At Home in the World: the Art and Life of Gulammohammed Sheikh”, edited by Chaitanya Sambrani, from Tulika Books, 2019.

Gulammohammed Sheikh has played a pioneering role in contemporary Indian art’s engagement with hybridity and a plural inheritance. Resolutely attentive to the multiplicity of experience and systems of representation and belief on the subcontinent, Sheikh’s art has reimagined relationships with the often paradoxical nature of tradition.

In a practice stretching more than five decades and across painting and digital media, Sheikh has sought to articulate a way of incorporating his fascination with historical figures and sources stretching from Italy to China in an encyclopedic endeavor, producing contemporary art that unashamedly declares its affiliations to earlier ways of seeing, thinking, and doing.

At Home in the World presents the first comprehensive study of the art and life of this seminal figure, bringing together aspects of biographical discussion alongside other modes of art historical analysis.

Once catalogued this gorgeous book will be available at ECA Library, Evolution House.

illustrated cover of the book
At Home in the World: front cover and images from inside…

       

Barbara A. Morton exhibition at ECA Library: sidereal. the afterimage

From 8th September until 7th November 2023 we were delighted to host sidereal. the afterimage, presenting a selection of work from ~ sidereal. the afterimage, by Barbara A. Morton of Entropie Books.

sidereal. the afterimage

sidereal. the afterimage

~ sidereal. the afterimage is a new chapter of creative composition by Barbara A Morton.

The exhibition takes its title from the distinctive signature piece ~ sidereal. the
afterimage which achieves an extension of intention and originality in the
expression of poetry, book-making, drawing, and design.

The accompanying pieces, likewise, demonstrate ambition and creative reach,
both technically and imaginatively, and serve to maintain and develop Barbara’s
ongoing purpose of bringing poetry and poetic text to its aesthetic and accurate
environment ~ to encourage the reader to look, and to encourage the viewer to
read. To look closely. To look again. To look ~ for longer.

The show was at ECA Library, Evolution House (level 1), West Port, Edinburgh, until noon on 7th November 2023. Evolution House is open to the public Monday – Friday, 9.00am – 4.45pm.

 

 

ECA Library Prize winner at 2023 RSA Annual is announced!

We are delighted that Norwegian artist Kjersti Sletteland has been announced as the winner of the 2023 RSA Annual ECA Library Prize. Kjersti wins a one year free borrowing membership to the ECA Library collections, which is part of the University of Edinburgh Libraries.
Well done Kjersti!
You can find out more here.

Picture of a sculpture made of porcelain
Rumination Tango by Kjersti Sletteland

Rumination Tango by Kjersti Sletteland

Using the Digital Wall at the Main Library to promote your work

The Digital Wall at the Main Library
Here are some guidelines for students who may wish to exhibit their work on the Main Library Digital Wall.
There are two ways to show video or moving image work on the Digital Wall:
1: Continuous loop films that populate the whole 18 4k screens at about 1-2 mins in length. Pixel Dimensions for these films are 7680 × 2160 at 30fps.
2: Films that are accessed via the touch screens that play on 9 screens at a time: about 3 mins is a good length. (Maximum 4 mins). Pixel Dimensions for these screens are 3840 × 2160 at 30fps. These films can be grouped into ‘collections’ within the Digital Wall database.
Students should supply an Mp4 file, preferably using the H.264 codec.
Still images can be shown using the same formats above, as Mp4 files/short films.
If you wish to exhibit your work on the Digital Wall it would be best to visit the Main Library (first floor landing) to see the Wall in action.
Who to contact:
Malcolm Brown, Deputy Photographer: Malcolm.Brown@ed.ac.uk
Digital Imaging Unit, University of Edinburgh, Main Library, George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LJ
Alternative contacts:
Gavin Willshaw, Digitisation & Digital Engagement Manager: Gavin.Willshaw@ed.ac.uk
Stuart Robinson, Technician, Audio Visual Resources, Digital Library: Stuart.Robinson@ed.ac.uk
Watch a clip of ECA Student Work on the Digital Wall

Supporting research and teaching with Artists’ Books at ECA and CRC

“Artists’ books are ‘books or book-like objects’ over the final appearance of which an artist has had a high degree of control; where the book is intended as a work of art in itself.” – Stephen Bury.[1]

ECA Library has a long history of collecting and promoting artists’ books, and has around 1500 items in its collection, all of which are listed on DiscoverEd. We use the artists’ books as a teaching collection and for displays and exhibitions. As Academic Support Librarian for ECA I am frequently asked to take selections of artists’ books to studios across the 5 Schools of ECA, to deliver hands-on sessions, as object-based learning is very much valued at ECA.

The collection at ECA ranges from ground-breaking works by Ed Ruscha from the 1960s to works by Scottish-based legends such as Ian Hamilton Finlay, Helen Douglas, Len McDermid, Thomas A Clark & Laurie Clark, to zines by local artists working today, and occasionally we collect the best examples of student work from ECA Degree Shows. We regularly attend artists’ book markets such as the annual bookfair held at the Edinburgh Fruitmarket Gallery, and ECA’s own Bookmarks Bookfair, which has been a very popular annual event since 2016.

We recently visited a fantastic exhibition of new artists’ books at the Upright Gallery, Nature Works, on the theme of climate change, and are pleased to be able to report that we will be acquiring six impressive artists’ books from the show, thanks to the support of the CRC. These are:

1: Christine Sloman: the rest is memory, (II): Inspired by a quote from the poet Louise Glück “We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory.” This piece is an evocation of language and landscape through the hazy lens of memory. Made in the form of a wooden block puzzle, the blocks are lined with monotypes on Japanese paper. This work reminded me of the work of Helen Chadwick.

Christine Sloman: the rest is memory, (II). Photograph by Jane Furness.

2: Marama Warren: The Currowan Fire – Ablaze:

The bushfires that raged on the east coast of Australia in the summer of 2019-20 were unprecedented in their extent and intensity. The Currowan fire was one of over 100 fires that burned across south east NSW for over 74 days. In that fire alone, three people’s lives were lost, 300 houses and an area of forest and farmland the size of Spain was burnt. The cost to flora and fauna was devastating. This book records and remembers the intensity of that terrifying experience, a time of fear, loss and uncertainty. Due to global warming, millions of people all around the world are now living with fear and uncertainty every day.

Marama Warren: The Currowan Fire – Ablaze. Photograph by Ian Farmer.

3: Barbara Morton: eventide.fallen, Entropie Press:

Barbara Morton: eventide.fallen. Photograph by Jane Furness.

eventide. fallen includes geometric and abstract colour pencil drawings alongside carefully arranged poetic text. A sequence of eight drawings on one side, having poetry shaped to mirror the image on the reverse – the design of the book carries the intention of encouraging the reader to appreciate poetry and art in equal measure.

4: Fenneke Wolters-Sinke: Yin and Yang book:

This hardcovered dos-à-dos artists’ book with elbum binding (an album structure which holds its pages by gripping them into a series of articulated narrow pockets, named after its creator Ben Elbel, of Elbel Libro Bookbinders) contains two sections, each with 7 panoramic monoprints folded in half. Each monoprint can be pulled out of the book and together they make up one continuous design. Yin is expressed as the movement of the sea at night with white ink on black paper. Yang has been expressed by the movement of air/ clouds above a mountain-scape during the day, with black ink on white paper. Each cover has a button made of bookcloth in the colour from the other cover, and black/white linen thread that ties around the book, pleasingly connecting Yin and Yang.

Fenneke Wolters-Sinke: Yin and Yang book. Photograph by Ian Farmer.

5: Susie Wilson: Seed:

This pamphlet book contains prints of a small collection of seeds that the artist grew in 2021 in her garden. Her interest in gardening has flourished through a collaborative two-year residency based on an allotment with artist Felicity Bristow. The ‘seed’ became central to their residency as the source of continuing life and a positive in an uncertain time. Collecting and sharing seed is a way of connecting to others, encouraging people to grow whether in their garden or a window box.

Susie Wilson: Seed. Photograph by Ian Farmer.

6: Sophie Artemis: a pop-up book of butterflies:

Butterflies are indicators of a healthy eco-system and their populations studied to monitor climate change. This pop-up Butterfly book identifies each caterpillar and butterfly and the habitat it needs to survive. The book unfolds like a butterfly and each page opens to allow the butterfly to emerge and fly upwards into nature.

Sophie Artemis: a pop up book of butterflies. Photograph by Ian Farmer.

In 2021 we acquired a beautiful work by Indian book artist Priya Pereira which is illustrated below.

Priya Pereira: The Seven Stories of Mewar. Photograph by Priya Pereira.

The Seven Stories of Mewar is a limited edition set of seven hand-made books, with their own embellished box, which, in the words of the artist “share some episodes of significance that occurred during the illustrious history of the House of Mewar over the  past fifteen hundred years”.

We look forward to using these items in forthcoming exhibitions and teaching.

ECA is now working more closely with the CRC to acquire artists’ books and there are also holdings at the CRC, where the examples tend to be unique, highly fragile, or classed as “manuscripts” or “fine bindings”. The CRC are delighted to have recently acquired several unique works by French book artist Diane de Bournazel.

“Diane de Bournazel (b. 1956) creates books as ‘poems without words’ in her unique pen, ink and gouache style, filling each page with mazes of vegetation, mysterious borders, structures and figures, opening windows within pages allowing us to see behind and beyond them, suggesting a series of alternative worlds and narratives. Drawing on the universals of the cosmos, the natural world, of childhood and human relationships each of her books invite careful ‘reading’ and multiple interpretations.” (Justin Croft).

The 4 books have now been catalogued and can be found on the CRC Archives catalogue online.

A page from Diane de Bournazel’s book Comme si de rien n’etait, 2021. [“Like nothing ever happened”, created during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.]

ECA Library are keen to support ECA in its teaching on book making and for each year of the School of Design’s Bookmarks Bookfair we have hosted a display of winning student work from the Fair, in the ECA Library, in collaboration with ECA tutor and book artist Jane Hyslop.

We are looking forward to supporting the next ECA Bookfair which will be “BOOKMARKS 2022”, taking place on Wednesday 30 March 2022 in the Sculpture Court, ECA.

[1] Bury, S. et al. (2015) Artists’ books : the book as a work of art 1963-2000. [Second edition]. London: Bernard Quaritch Limited.